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Former mayor named director of Brooksville Main Street

 
Brooksville City Hall  Times (2018)
Brooksville City Hall Times (2018)
Published June 19, 2019

BROOKSVILLE — The Brooksville Vision Foundation wanted someone to lead its Main Street program who knew the players and knew how to bring downtown Brooksville to the next level of success.

On Monday night, Foundation chairman Cliff Manuel introduced to the City Council former Brooksville mayor Natalie Kahler as the new Main Street executive director. She replaces Ryan Malloy, the community's first Main Street director, who left two months ago amid unrest from some business owners who said he played favorites among them.

Previous coverage: Brooksville Main Street Program loses its director

Manuel said that unlike Malloy, whose expertise was Main Street programs, Kahler knows the community. Knowing the community is needed to get buy-in and the traction needed to promote and grow downtown Brooksville, he said.

For council members concerned about Kahler's political ambitions, she explained that she was immediately withdrawing her candidacy for the District 1 seat on the Hernando County Commission. Kahler jumped into the commission race several months ago after an unsuccessful run at the District 4 seat last year.

Brooksville Mayor William Kemerer said he wants to be sure the new Main Street director will be around for awhile and will not have the conflict of someone seeking an elected job. That would keep him from financially support the program, he said.

Kahler withdrew from the commission race on Tuesday.

Kahler, 47, is a 20-year resident of Hernando County who has been a teacher on and off for years at the Hernando Christian Academy. From 2015 to 2018, she was manager at the Chinsegut Museum and Manor House. She said she sees the Main Street director's job as playing better into her strengths than a seat on the County Commission.

"I think that my skills are more executive than legislative,'' she told the Tampa Bay Times.

She said she wants to better coordinate downtown activities, rather than having groups appearing to compete with one another. Kahler already has met with County Administrator Jeff Rogers, officials from the Greater Hernando County Chamber of Commerce, county tourism manager Tammy Heon and the downtown business owners' organization.

Kahler also wants to focus on the economic development of Brooksville. That means, in part, working with the city and the county to develop the second floor of downtown buildings into residential units so shops and restaurants have a full-time complement of customers.

"The economic development part was not something that was the focus for the first couple of years,'' she said. Malloy set up a variety of events for downtown, Kahler said, something that Main Street event and marketing coordinator Tina Marie Polson was good at doing. That would allow her to place her efforts elsewhere.

Kahler was hired at a base salary of $40,000, with potential incentive pay bringing that up to $65,000 depending on her ability to secure grants and donations for the program.

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The city hasn't decided formally how much funding to give the program this year, if any. Manuel told council members he was hoping for their support. For the past three years, the city and the county each gave $51,000 annually to Main Street, but that commitment is now done. County officials, who are facing a $10 million budget shortfall, have not yet set aside funding for the program.

Council member Joe Bernardini said he hoped the Main Street Program would not abandon efforts already begun, such as the development of streetscape concepts that have been run by the community.

Manual said they would not lose the work already done.

Kahler said she wants to get the Main Street program keyed into it original focus.

"The whole point,'' she said, "is that we want to see those storefronts filled, and we want to see those people prospering.''

Contact Barbara Behrendt at bbehrendt@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1434.